Laurent Lamothe, the Haitian entrepreneur and co-founder of Global Voice Group, was recently named special advisor to the president of Haiti, Michel Martelly. In this capacity he will advise the Haitian president principally on matters of investment and socio-economic development.

Since July, Mr. Lamothe has been a member of the Interim Council for the Reconstruction of Haiti (CIRH). As a member of this commission and a Haitian citizen, the entrepreneur declares himself more than ever "committed to the well-being and the development," of his native country. Laurent Lamothe remained for many years outside the political scene in his native country. Above party politics, he sees himself rather as "a pragmatist who favours concrete solutions to Haiti's needs." It was from this perspective that he accepted the mandates of special advisor to the Haitian presidency and member of the CIRH.

Born on August 14, 1972 in Port-au-Prince, Laurent Lamothe was raised in an upper-middle-class Haitian family. At nineteen, he left his homeland to take up studies at Barry University in Miami, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in political science. Subsequently admitted to Saint Thomas University in 1996, he completed a brilliant academic career by earning a master's degree, with honourable mention, in business management. The entrepreneurial spirit and dynamism he showed over the course of the subsequent decade led, in May 2008, to his being named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by the firm Ernst and Young.

With his company, Global Voice Group, Laurent Lamothe has introduced telecom governance technologies into Africa that permit the regulatory authorities to effectively regulate the sector in terms of control, tariff equity, and transparency.

His deep understanding of the issues of sustainable development in the emerging countries will make him invaluable to a Haitian presidency that is seeking to intensify its ongoing reconstruction efforts. Laurent Lamothe firmly believes that "today's businesses must eschew a management philosophy focused uniquely on the search for short-term profit; they need always to consider the impact their activities will have upon future generations as well."

HL/ HaitiLibre